The Ideal Golf Course- in 1927

[Sean_Tully]

The article is from Golf Illustrated possibly by the editor(?)(William Henry Beers) as there is no name given. It will be very familiar to those that like to rate and discuss the best holes in America. The one interesting thing that they did was combine two holes to make one! The list is heavy on Pine Valley and with the National and Essex County having two holes.

They set the ground rules and go hole-by-hole in the article.

To add to the initial article they had the infamous Joshua Crane anaylize the course and compare it to the best courses in Scotland/England.

Start with the ideal golf course and go in order then follow it up with the Crane articles. Click on the download and enjoy(with pics of 3rd at PV, 16th at PH#2, 12th at Merion, and the 17th at NGLA)

I have not played any of the courses so I can not comment .

THE IDEAL GOLF COURSE

If you want to see the list in a larger view download the Ideal Golf Course that is 96kb.


Tully

[wsmorrison]

I noticed that the article was written by Joshua Crane.  Bob Crosby is studying the vast amount of articles written by Crane.  Crane had an ongoing feud with Alister MacKenzie and others about The Old Course among other subjects.  As you can tell he had a very detailed method of ranking holes and courses.  Seems like Crane advocated altering many holes (especially tree removal).  The one hole I saw where there were no changes recommended (I didn't finish the article) was the 3rd at Kittansett.  Crane was from New England, an heir to a porcelene fortune.

[BCrosby]

As Wayne notes, the article could only be by Crane. There were a number of pieces by Crane and others that preceded it.

The more closely you read it, the less you will like his analysis. MacK, Hunter, Behr, Thomas, Ambrose and probably Colt were strongly opposed to Crane's take on gca.

I am writing something on the topic now. I hope to have it ready soon. In many respects it is a debate about gca that is still going on.

Bob